State v. Coleman
| Decision Date | 26 February 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 2014–KA–0402.,2014–KA–0402. |
| Citation | 188 So.3d 174 |
| Parties | STATE of Louisiana v. Robert Glen COLEMAN. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
188 So.3d 174
STATE of Louisiana
v.
Robert Glen COLEMAN.
No. 2014–KA–0402.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Feb. 26, 2016.
Letty S. DiGiulio, Gary Patrick Clements, Matilde Jean Carbia, for appellant.
Louisiana Department of Justice, James D. Caldwell, Attorney General, Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office, Dale G. Cox, Jr., District Attorney, Suzanne Lynn Owen, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.
JOHNSON, Chief Justice*
On February 14, 2003, a Caddo Parish grand jury returned an indictment charging defendant, Robert Glen Coleman, with the January 1, 2003, first degree murder of 70–year–old Julian L. Brandon, Jr. and the attempted first degree murder of his wife, 69–year–old Alice Brandon. Counsel was appointed and defendant entered a plea of not guilty. On January 21, 2005, the state filed an amended indictment, severing the non-capital offense, and proceeded to trial on one count of first degree murder as to decedent Julian Brandon.1 On February
17, 2005, a Caddo Parish jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty as charged, and, two days later, voted unanimously to impose the death penalty, having found all four aggravating circumstances urged by the state, namely that: defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery, La. C.Cr. P. art. 905.4(A)(1); the victim was older than 65 years of age, La. C.Cr. P. art. 905.4(A)(10); defendant created a risk of death or great bodily harm to more than one person, La. C.Cr. P. art. 905.4(A)(4); and defendant had been previously convicted of armed robbery, La. C.Cr. P. art. 905.4(A)(3). On appeal, this court found a violation of the rule in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), which forbids racially discriminatory use of peremptory challenges during jury selection, and vacated defendant's conviction and sentence and remanded the case for a new trial. State v. Coleman, 06–0518 (La.11/2/07), 970 So.2d 511.
Jury selection for defendant's second trial commenced on January 23, 2012, and the guilt phase began on January 30, 2012. On February 3, 2012, a Caddo Parish jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged, and on February 7, 2012, having found the same four aggravating circumstances as found at his first trial, unanimously agreed to impose the death penalty. Thereafter, the trial court denied defendant's motion for a new trial and, on May 3, 2012, formally imposed the death sentence in accord with the jury's determination.
This is a direct appeal under La. Const. art. V, § 5(D). Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence raising 38 assignments of error, variously combined into 21 arguments. We will address the most significant of these assignments of error in this opinion, and the remaining assignments of error will be addressed in an unpublished appendix. After a thorough review of the law and the evidence, we find no merit in any of the assignments of error relative to the issue of guilt. Therefore, we affirm the defendant's first-degree murder conviction. However, we find error relative to the state's failure to provide sufficient notice of evidence of an unadjudicated murder introduced in the penalty phase. Thus, we vacate defendant's sentence and remand this case for a new sentencing hearing.
FACTS
During the early evening hours of January 1, 2003, 70–year–old retired minister, Julian Brandon, and his 68–year–old wife, Alice Brandon, were attacked in their home. Crime scene investigators determined that the perpetrators shoved their way into the Brandon home through the front door and that Mr. Brandon was forced into his dining room where he was shot through the chin at contact or near—contact range. A portion of the bullet lodged in his brain and a portion exited and embedded in the ceiling above him. Mr. Brandon was repeatedly stabbed and cut at some point thereafter. Mr. Brandon was killed in the attack. Mrs. Brandon was found in a bedroom of the home, where the perpetrators had placed a pillow over her face and shot her in the head. Mrs. Brandon survived the attack, although she remained permanently disabled until she died several years later.
Months earlier, Tammy Holmes was living with her husband, John Holmes, in Tylertown, Mississippi.2 In August 2002, John's daughter, Brandy Holmes, stayed with the couple a short time before moving
in with her new boyfriend, defendant Robert Coleman. During that time, John owned a .380 pistol which he used regularly to target shoot in a remote wooded area in Lumberton, Mississippi. Brandy and defendant visited John and Tammy just before Christmas in 2002. While at their home, defendant stayed outside to work on his truck, but Brandy made several trips back and forth between the yard and the home, using a back door near the nightstand on which John kept his gun. The day after their visit, John noticed his gun was missing and, despite exhaustive searches, never located it.
On Christmas Eve 2002, defendant and Brandy left Mississippi to visit Brandy's mother, Brenda Bruce, in Shreveport. After settling in at Ms. Bruce's trailer home, the pair decided to host a New Year's Eve party. Terrance Barnes, an acquaintance of Brandy's, attended the party and, at some point during the night, observed defendant receive a gun, which Barnes described as a "revolver," from Brandy's younger brother, Sean George, in a back bedroom. Later that night, defendant asked Barnes if he knew where he could "hit-a-lick," which Barnes understood to mean that defendant was asking where he could rob someone.
The Brandons were not discovered for four days, on January 5, 2003, when a concerned friend, Calvin Hudson, went to check on them. Mr. Hudson observed Mr. Brandon's body in a pool of blood through the glass back door of the house and immediately went to a neighbor's house to call police. While waiting for police to arrive, the neighbor, retired Caddo Parish Deputy Sheriff Danny Kent, walked over to observe the scene for himself. Deputy Kent found the Brandons' back door unlocked and entered to check Mr. Brandon's pulse. Deputy Kent maintained he did not touch anything in the home—except to check Mr. Brandon's pulse—and that police arrived shortly thereafter and secured the scene.
Sergeant William Gaines was first to respond to the 911 dispatch and also entered through the back door. According to Sgt. Gaines, it was apparent that Mr. Brandon had been dead more than a day. After surveying the scene around Mr. Brandon, Sgt. Gaines followed bloody footprints down the hallway where he heard a sound coming from the first bedroom and discovered an incapacitated Mrs. Brandon. There was a bloodstain on the bed and Mrs. Brandon was lying face up on the floor in a pool of dried blood. Sgt. Gaines notified Mrs. Brandon that he was a police officer there to help, called for EMT assistance, and cleared the remainder of the house. According to Sgt. Gaines, although it seemed Mrs. Brandon wanted to say something, she could not speak and her eyes could only track from side to side. Sgt. Gaines waited for investigators to arrive and photograph the scene before moving anything, but noted a jewelry box in disarray and a piece of jewelry on the kitchen floor. After Mrs. Brandon received initial medical attention from the EMTs, Sgt. Gaines recalled that she was able to answer simple questions, but he did not hear her say anything of significance to the investigation.
Deputy Chief Jefferson Akes of the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office was another among the first to respond. Having observed that Mrs. Brandon had suffered a head woundof indeterminate cause, he immediately dispatched emergency air transport. Deputy Chief Akes also recalled that although she was initially unresponsive, Mrs. Brandon began to mumble after EMTs cleaned her mouth but she was unable to give specific responses.
The flight medic crew arrived at the scene to transport Mrs. Brandon to the
hospital. While on board the helicopter, paramedic Tommy Adams questioned Mrs. Brandon about her attackers and she stated that two white persons were responsible.3 Mrs. Brandon was admitted into intensive care and remained there several weeks. She had a "trach" implanted shortly after being admitted and never spoke again.4 After Mrs. Brandon was discharged from the hospital, her daughter, Dawn Finley, a nurse, provided round–the–clock care until Mrs. Brandon passed away in 2008.
Crime scene investigator Corporal Charlotte Hammontree arrived at the Brandons' home shortly after the 911 dispatch and immediately began taking photographs of the scene. She also collected several samples for DNA testing and documented everything of apparent significance. In addition, she noted the absence of spent bullet casings on the premises. Mr. Brandon's wallet, debit and credit cards, along with at least four pieces of Mrs. Brandon's jewelry—including a pearl bracelet and a gold bracelet with multicolored stones—were missing. Latent prints expert, Lt. Owen McDonnell, brushed five or six areas at the scene for fingerprints, including the knife blades used on Mr. Brandon and the killers' apparent points of entry and exit, but none of the fingerprints lifted at the...
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